Why is that? The Washington Post reports that there's evidence that people are using more effective forms of birth control, which correlates with the trend of abortions dipping in 2009, the last year data is available.

Many of those laws were, ironically, to cut off government funding to Planned Parenthood, even though birth control is the biggest service it provides (abortions are a mere 3 percent). And remember, research shows a correlation between good contraception and fewer abortions.

So how did this happen?

Republicans took back the U.S. House in 2010 in a Tea Party tidal wave, which made big headlines. But more significantly, they won a record number of seats in state legislatures and swept into power in many corners of the country -- not just in friendly territory like the South, but across the Midwest in Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Now Tea Partiers are often described as near-libertarians, focused exclusively on economics. They want government off our backs, and passionately push for lower taxes, lower spending and fewer social programs. Social issues don't interest them.

But that's a myth. Polling shows Tea Partiers are far more likely to identify as being pro-life than the general public (65 percent to 46 percent in one Gallup poll).

So the revulsion for government intrusion apparently doesn't apply to women's bodies.

And Tea Party Republicans have been able to adeptly multi-task, chopping business regulations while piling up abortion restrictions, especially in states like Arizona, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.

Michigan has contributed to the tally of anti-abortion laws in both years with an '11 law banning so-called "partial birth" abortions (which is really redundant of federal law, but has been a big Right to Life priority for years).

This year's offering was an omnibus bill that set stringent standards for clinics that could end up shutting most of them down (one of those "unintended consequences," wink, wink).

There's a reason why Republican leadership held off on legislation, which originally would have banned abortions after 20 weeks and could have meant women who miscarried wouldn't be able to undergo a critical dilation and extraction. The GOP was worried it would cost them the election.

They had good reason. After Reps. Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield) and Barb Byrum (D-Onondaga) used the words "vagina" and "vasectomy," respectively, to protest the bills and were (totally coincidentally) banned from speaking on the House floor afterward, the bills became national news as evidence of the "War on Women."

And playwright Eve Ensler swept into Lansing to perform a last-minute rendition of the feminist play, The Vagina Monologues, before 3,000 people on the Capitol steps.

Summer came and went. President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) won the Michigan female vote by double digits in Michigan even without Republicans passing the abortion bills. And so the GOP quickly took up legislation in lame duck, perhaps counting on the spectacle of Right to Work to give them cover.

So even though the issue isn't on anyone's agenda, it would probably be surprising if more restrictions didn't come up. Roe's 40th anniversary on Jan. 22 could provide a good time to introduce bills or hold hearings.

After all, this is the kind of government intervention Tea Partiers can believe in.

Susan J. Demas is a political analyst for Michigan Information & Research Service (MIRS). She can be reached at sjdemas@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter here.